But clearly this is not the big move into the travel industry many were expecting – with the widely speculated deal for Google to buy ITA Software still languishing at all pointsbetween “definitely on” and “probably off”.

Ruba was launched in April 2009 by co-founders Mike Cassidy and Arnaud Weber – the former a CEO of three startups Xfire, Direct Hit, and Stylus Innovation, and Weber working as technical lead on Google Chrome.

The blog post says:

“We want to thank the entire Ruba community (guide writers, local experts, bloggers, and more) for all you’ve done along the way. We’d also like to thank our tour operator partners for sharing their tours on our site. Thank you for sharing your feedback, ideas, and of course your travel tips and experiences with our community.”

Unconfirmed reports suggest the Ruba site will be closed down within a few months and Google has simply acquired the technology and expertise.

UPDATE:

If the Ruba closes and Google did indeed buy the company for its tech and people then it triggers a number of questions.

Kevin May is editor and a co-founder of Tnooz. He was previously editor of UK-based magazine Travolution for nearly four years and web editor of Media Week UK from 2003 to 2005.

He has also worked in regional newspapers (Essex Enquirer) and started his career in journalism at the Police Gazette at New Scotland Yard in London. He has a degree in criminology and a postgraduate diploma in magazine journalism.

[…] in various areas of e-commerce.” Rumors of an acquisition of ITA Software and Google’s recent acquisition of Ruba may represent Google’s attempts to bring more focus to its efforts. But Diller’s […]

Dennis Schaal

People need a reason to book a flight or accommodation. Panoramio was samll in the scheme of things when they acquired that in 2007. Tours/curated travel ideas seem a great fit to what Google already have and what they appear to have in pipeline.

Kevin May

@Dennis: Totally agreed on the technology! What I meant was that it’s hard to see what Google would do with Ruba the *business*, which has been centered around building a community and listings of tours, generating leads for tour operators. With the technology, oh yes, plenty of cool things to come from Google…

Dennis Schaal

Brian: I can see a LOT that Google can do with Ruba. In fact, to me Ruba really takes a leap forward in trip planning and travel inspiration. The way Ruba integrates with Google Maps and the imagery it provides on various tours is really impressive. I can see Google combining this sort of thing with its hotel mapping experiment and hotel pricing for a truly unique trip-planning and shopping experience. I really look forward to seeing what Google and Ruba will come up with. I think the travel industry is looking to the new TravelPost and I’m looking to the newbie Room 77 for some truly creative efforts. I guess no one has ever underestimated Google, which looks like it too can come up with something game-changing.

Mike Cassidy is a great entrepreneur and Arnaud Weber is a great engineer. I can see Google acquiring the team / tech, but hard to see what they would do with Ruba. TechCrunch’s update said “Google tells us that they didn’t actually acquire Ruba, but the team behind Ruba will be joining the Google team to work on iGoogle and other projects,” while one of the commenters wrote that Ruba has now emailed users that they will be shutting down the service.

Yet again, another scoop by tnooz. Honestly, I read it here first so kudos to you Kevin.

I think this was about the package; tech, community and expertise. At 15 months in, team Ruba and investors make a nice return and Google snaps up something before anyone else does. Clearly the Google connection got them on the radar but hey, who cares, they scored.

I would guess it is the technology behind the media platform for marketing and sharing tours. Kind of like a Google Local Tours but on steroids. I doubt it was for either the community or the domain since the site is driving very modest traffic when compared with other community sites, like your’s Sam.

Agree its likely the tech & expertise. The site has done a nice job of integrating with Facebook and Twitter..and has a pretty active community (badges, points, etc.). The visual discovery is also nice. And I’m sure one of founders being an ex-googler helped get them on Google’s radar:)

@Sam Re domain name, I would be surprised thats a reason. What the heck is a ‘Ruba’ anyway?